Just bought a bike, now I need a jacket and helmet

Hi all,


Last friday I bought an '82 XJ550 off my dad's buddy with about 10k miles on it--shiny but dusty. It's been sitting, covered in a garage for 10 years so I plan to do the carbs and some other stuff to get it running (safely), which is how I found this forum!

My question is, this is my first street bike, so I'll need to buy a leather jacket and a full face helmet or two. Does anyone have any suggestions for decent, low-budget bikerwear? I'm in Palatine, IL, so not too far from Chicago. Also, I'm new to the area.

For the jacket I'm thinking between $100 and 150, but I'd go as high as $200 if it really struck my fancy. Same price on the helmet; if I can get a jacket, helmet, and gloves for $300, that would be sweet. Buying used is definitely an option if I can find stuff that fits and is priced right; I just don't know where to find such things.

It looks like I'll have to put at least $400 and some time into the tires, carbs, carb boots, and front brake, and probably $100 into registration and insurance. I got the bike for $500...deal or no?

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Also, the carb rebuild FAQ's will DEFINITELY come in handy!

-Rick

 

If you are just looking for some of this stuff cheap then you may want to start out looking at a pawn shop for a jacket. My girlfriend picked up one here for $50 that she has seen online for almost $100 more. It dose not have the armor built in but it dose have triple patches on the shoulders, elbows and along the back. As for the helmet and gloves..... The Wal-Mart here has Bell helmets for like $70 - $80 for the full face ones as well as gloves. I would however poke around a bit though. I picked up a Fulmer helmet for $110 and a set of Castle armored sumer riding gloves for $35 from the local Yamaha shop.

 

What I would suggest is look up and find all "very small" used bike parts and apparel shops, they will also usually sell new leather and helmets and stuff also. But they will give you a much better price then large dealerships and shops. They are more in need of your business and will give you a better deal. Ask at a big dealership for a discount, you might as well offer to shoot yourself in the foot for their entertainment.

After awhile you'll have gathered a collective of small shops that you will continue to do business with like I have. I've also been to some that were shit heads and they don't get my business.

I picked up my Shoei which was a brand new, but a discontinued model
"oh yea these little shops will have a lot of that stuff too" for $175. and it was like a $350. + helmet retail. Same story at the same place for my leather jacket, gloves etc etc.

 

http://www.jafrum.com

I bought 2 Helmets and a pair of Leather Gloves here. Cheapest prices anywhere and extremely quick turnaround on orders. I just ordered something this morning, and I got the tracking number less than an hour later.

They sell Jackets. I'm not sure if I would get one online though as I would want to try it on first, but thats my preference.

They have a 1 year money back guarantee, a 2 year warranty on all their stuff, a 115% Low price guarantee, and Free size exchanges. It's pretty tough to go wrong with these guys.

 

You also want to check out these guys:

NewEnough.com

They carry all the big names, usually last year's line, at big discounted prices. I've known a few people who've bought from them, and everyone says service has been fantastic, and the products are great.

Note: their site is down for some emergency maintenance, but save the link 'cuz you'll like it!

 

Wow...I just checked out Jafrum and they look very very affordable! Thanks for the link Gremlin!

Altus, thank you for the link to New Enough; actually a guy I work with told me about that at lunch. He also suggested that I go to a large local shop to try stuff on to figure out what fits, then buy online...not sure I'm willing to do that.

I know there was a lot in my original post; you think I got a decent deal or no?

-Rick

 

It happens more often than you would think. Thats how I found my correct helmet size. There's nothing immoral about IMHO.

I'd say yeah. It sounds to be in much better shape than the one I bought for $350, and I've put about $500 in parts into it to get it to a drivable state.

It's value is all in what it means to you.

You wont be able to find any new carbs, and the chance that you find used ones in good shape are slim. I'd start with re-building the carbs before you look for alternatives. There are hundreds of threads in this very forums on how to do so.

The carb boots can be found on e-bay, or new ones I believe can be had for around $100. I've also heard of people using RTV sealant and innertube rubber to repair old ones to practically new again.

Brake pads aren't hard to find. If you need the whole caliper,etc. check the "for sale" section, or ebay.

Welcome to the site, and congrats on the great purchase.

P.S. It's required that you post pics of your new bike...

P.P.S. Wait a minute, I haven't posted pics yet...

 

Ha! Yeah, I figure at the bare minimum it needs a thorough carb cleaning and rebuild. I've never done it before but feel pretty confident with the FAQ's and my dad's level of experience. There are two sets of carbs on ebay that both need cleaning, and there are two sets of boots on ebay for about the same money as buying from an online shop. Mine really shouldn't be too bad aside from 10 years of stagnant gas.

Bearing in mind that I haven't seen the bike in good light yet, and I've never been inside a carb before:

1) I'll try rebuilding the carbs without a kit. Float bowl gaskets are easy to make. Does anyone here think a carb kit is worth $17/apiece plus shipping? I'd like to know what you all think.

2) As for the boots, I'd like to check them for leaks by covering the carb end with a steel plate and applying vacuum to the synch port with a mity vac and looking for leakdown. My only concern there is that the intake valves might leak a bit without having been started for 10 years. Annnnd I just now realized to do so I'll have to make a YICS disable tool. If leaks are found I'll try to repair before replacing.

3) The tires have minor checking from dry rot...nothing I'm too concerned about for short rides but definitely something I want to take care of before going very fast or for a long time. Can anyone recommend a good front and rear tire for my bike? Tubes or tubeless? I'd like to try changing the tires myself and have a shop balance them.

4) For the front brake, at this point I'm assuming that it just needs a flush and bleed. If that doesn't work I'll take a look at master/caliper rebuild kits. I didn't take a good look at the rubber line when I went to buy the bike, and I still haven't gone back to pick it up yet. My dad may do that this week if the weather cooperates (bike is in Detroit, parents are in Ann Arbor, I'm near Chicago).

Next time I see it I'll take some pics The back story is a long one...but here goes: Back in the mid-80's, when I was in early grade school, our next door neighbor had this bike. He was the second owner and then sold it to my dad's buddy at work (For his wife. To ride, not in exchange for). She rode it a handful of times and it was last registered in '97. They decided to sell it and he took my offer of $500. I should have offered $400

-Rick

 

Heh, when the P.O. of my bike put the listing up on Craigs List, he was asking $450. I was pretty quick to respond, and I went over to see it with $450 in hand. He said "Hell if you really want it, I'll give it to ya for $350." I was pretty quick to throw the money at him at that point.

I paid $22/piece for the carb rebuild kits. Sad part is, that didn't include any replacement jets. I'd check online before you spend $17 a piece. Thats the one thing I really wish I did my homework on before I bought.

 

I got mine from old bike barn for $12 plus shipping. No new jets. Just the float needle, seat and gasket. It's really the float needle you're paying for. Not hard work. I made it through for the first time.

 

denniskirk.com has an outlet store as part of their online shop. I got my M2R 600 helmet there for about $30. This is a discontinued model but a good quality one. Check them out and see what they have. You can go to motorcyclegeareview.com to get reviews on jackets gloves and helmets. For gloves and Jackets I would try jafrum.com

 

Wow, this is all great information! Thanks for the help, guys. The weekend of the 22nd I'll go home and be able to pull the carbs. Once they're off and apart I can see what I'm really up against here. Who knows? Maybe I'll get lucky and it will fire right up with just fresh gas....riiiiggghhht!

-Rick

 

yeah I got a discontinued Icon helmet from http://www.ironpony.com for $50.

Great helmet and fully DOT approved and all that stuff.

 

There is no shame in trying on equipment at one shop, then buying online or at another shop. I do it all the time. Got a shop right down the street from me. They happen to be the only one in the county, and it is reflected in their prices. I shop there, and buy either online or at a place about 40 miles away that is worth the drive for their customer service and pricing.

 

You might also consider textile jackets. My Frank Miller is in the $150-$200 range (I think...it was a christmas present) and it has full CE protection at the shoulders and elbows, a pad down my spine, vents and a removeable liner. It works awesome for me and I feel safe in it although I haven't had to use it yet (knock on wood).

Oh yeah, and I'm partial to KBC helmets. I got a TK-8 which has full DOT and Snell approval, super easy to swap lenses and only cost about $100. Probably even cheaper on ebay or now that theyve been out for a couple years. I have heard TK-9's are a helmet to avoid though, that was 2 years ago though so I can't remember why just thought I'd mention it.

 

Rick, if you don't mind a bit of a drive, you might check out the Wilson's Leather outlets in Huntley, IL or Kenosha, WI... They're having a 50% off sale right now (that's 50% off the outlet prices), not sure how long it'll go...

Most of the jackets they sell are fashion-weight (thin leather); I wouldn't want to trust my skin to 'em. They do have some heavy-weight jackets, though; I just picked up a riding-weight jacket there today for $70... (The price when it was in the regular store was $378.) And that was for a "Big & Tall", too...

 

This Saturday I went with a couple buddies to Chicago Cycle and tried on enough helmets to make my temples feel sunburned. The one that felt the best was the Arai Quantum 2, to the tune of $475. Quite a nice helmet, but way out of my price range.

The other one that felt decent was the HJC CL-SP for $180. I've found it online for $120, and I think I can get that without shipping costs. There's another one by HJC I'd like to try on, the AC-12. That one I've found online for $160.

One of my buddies recommended I try on some Scorpion helmets. He's been happy with his, but as he said it comes down to what fits 1st, and price 2nd.

Looking for jackets was hopeless. The clearance rack stuff either didn't fit, or wasn't *that* cheap, or had ugly nasty logos all over them. The full price stuff didn't fit all that great, and was super expensive to boot. I'll have to try on some nylon jackets since I only tried leather this weekend.

Thanks again for all the input, guys!

-Rick

 

I would be leery of exclusively nylon, make sure it has a decent liner (cotton is my preferrence). God forbid you go for a slide and the nylon melts to your skin, know what I mean? Make sure you layer up if you go with nylon.

 

Try Cycyle Gear. stores everywhere and online as well. They have a lot of store specials all the time. Bought a $250 dollar jacket yesterday off the clearance rack for $79. I've seen helmets for as little as $30.

 

I uploaded some photos of my bike to My album. I'm still bummed about the tank but the rest of the bike is near perfect, and an eBay replacement tank coming!

 

that is one massive dent in the tank!!

Bike is nice otherwise. Enjoy cleaning it up. Hopefully the new tank is in great shape!

 

Yup - that's some crease alright. How's that happen exactly? Did I miss a post somewhere? Can see why you went with a replacement from flea-bay.

 

Well, the bike was near flawless when I bought it. I paid for it with the intent of going back to get it the following weekend with the trailer. My dad ended up going to get it for me with the trailer, a low-slung homemade utility type with a 3" angle iron rail around the perimeter. He tied it down with a strap on each side of the handlebars and one across the seat. He said he hit a pothole and the bike disappeared from view...so the tank landed on the rail.

The way I see it, I've destroyed enough of his stuff growing up that I really don't mind, a replacement tank was readily available, no one got hurt, and NOTHING else on the bike was touched by it falling. So really once I take care of the mechanical stuff and replace the tank, she's good to go.

Also, the tank still seals so I'm going to ride it until I get the new one. It's rusty inside (so said the seller) so I plan on trying the electrolysis method. My buddy is doing that right now with his CB350 tank, and it's freakin amazing how well it works!

-Rick

 

Bump for update!

I've been riding a little bit for the past two weeks. For safety equipment I ended up buying an HJC AC-12 helmet (not the carbon fiber one) and a Tour Master Coaster II jacket (black/brown).

So far I've been happy with the helmet. It fits my head reasonably well (although not as well as the Arai Quantum II), looks good. I can't comment on noise level as this is my first street helmet.

The Tour Master jacket fits pretty well, looks good, has CE approved elbow and shoulder armor, a zipout lining with zipoff lining sleeves, and plenty of vents. Standing around in 80deg sunshine yesterday at a picnic I was only slightly warmer than comfortable. Once under way it cools down nicely.

The problem I had was with the main zipper. The SECOND day I used the jacket, the die cast zipper pull came off in my hand. Granted, the zipper was stiff as new as it was, and moves freely now. You'd think, however, that the zipper would last a breakin cycle. I emailed Tour Master from their webpage and they suggested I go back to the place I got it from. Not sure why that is...anyway, I went back there on Thursday (6/7) and the guy I bought it from said he'd call them. Yesterday I happened to be at that shop on my lunch hour and asked about it; he said they still haven't called him back. My girlfriend suggested getting an 'aftermarket' heavy duty zipper pull from a fabric store rather than get a factory replacement that is likely to break again. I AM curious as to how the company will handle this. I'll post the result!

-Rick

 

Hey all,

Does anyone know the quality of the helmets off of jafrum? I am looking at getting a half helmet for around town use to compliment my full face and i liked some of the ones from jafrum, and more importantly i was attracted to the price, but i wasnt sure if they were of reasonable quality or not. Based on the price it makes me a little leary but i can get over that if someone with experience would be able to convince me with some first hand knowledge of the product.

 

I asked that question a while ago, and the general consensus was they're pretty good. I've been tempted to get their modular (flip-up) model and see.

 

I just purchased a modular helmet from them and I think it is real nice.

 

I wouldn't recommend any helmet without a Snell certification, and would recommend checking the list at http://www.smf.org/ to make sure it's really certified and NOT just a sticker on the helmet!

Joe, I see that Jafrum sells a THH TS-16 that is listed on Snell's webpage for having M2005 certification. None of Jafrum's half helmets are Snell certified.

-Rick

 

I'm not a fan of Snell certifications for motorcycle helmets in the least - their testing methodology is wrong for us, creating helmets that are too stiff, that transmit far too much energy to the head of the wearer in real-world motorcycle accidents.

Several studies now have shown that Snell certified helmets are NOT what you want for motorcycle accidents, and the DOT testing method and certification is actually preferable -- with the ECE (European code) certification being even better.

In the motorcycling world, Snell is a north american marketing tool now - nothing more, and certainly not better for your safety.

 

Snell-certified helmets will, to some extent, protect from much higher levels of impact energy than a DOT helmet. However, since the energy-absorbing material is stiffer, it will transmit more of that energy to your head.

There's a great article at Motorcyclist Online where they tested various DOT, Snell, and ECE helmets. The results sure surprised me...
http://www.motorcyclistonline.com/gearb ... et_review/

It's kind of a long article, so here's my 2-minute summary:

Essentially, the Snell standard specifies that a helmet must protect from impacts up to 150 joules. DOT's limit is around 100. Since Snell helmets can withstand a higher impact energy, they must be better, right?

Well, not necessarily. Because the Snell standard allows the helmet to transmit up to 300 g's to your head and still pass. The DOT standard allows only up to 250 g's. Thing is, most head-trauma studies show that while most people can survive a 300-g head impact, you probably won't ever fully recover from any impact over 250. And the less g's, the better. So a softer helmet that transmits fewer g's is better in almost every case.

Finally, according to a study of some 900-plus actual motorcycle crashes, more than 90% of real-world head impacts are at energy levels under the DOT's 100-joule limit. And if you have a crash violent enough to cause a higher head impact, you probably won't survive it due to other, non-head injuries. So having a helmet rated for higher impact energy is usually overkill at best; at worst, it may cause more severe injuries than a softer helmet would.

 

Wow...I never heard that before. I'll have to check that out. Thanks for the tip!

-Rick

 

RickDick,

Sounds like you've already got your gear, so I'm a bit late for that, but did want to throw out motorcyclecloseouts.com for future considerations. I've bought a few things from them (gloves mostly, I think) and have been happy.
Prices aren't insanely cheap, but pretty good on certain items. If I ever decided on a pir of overpants, I'll likely get 'em from them.

Also, I wanted to say, "Howdy, neighbor!" I'm up near Great America. If you need to borrow a Colortune or YICS tool, let me know. I'd say "we should ride sometime," but as a recent dad and devoted husband, all of my riding is done on my commute. But who knows, maybe I COULD sneak away some weekend.

I've lived in the area my whole life, so if you need some tips on local stuff - motorcycling or otherwise - feel free to drop me a PM.

 

82XJ-

Thank you for the summary. I'll check out the link you sent...I think you posted your post while I was posting my last post, so I just now saw it. Another point on the helmet debate (not that I've done much research): My girlfriend's mother has been a nurse in Louisville for about 30 years. Based on the anecdotal experience of her and her doctor coworkers, if you have a helmet on, chances are your head is okay but your neck is broken or at least sprained. If you don't have a helmet on, chances are you have minor injuries. So her take on it is that a) helmets will do more harm than good, and b) why would I be so stupid as to ride a motorcycle?


Oblivion-

Good to hear from you! I saw your location on a carb clinic post. I'll definitely take you up on that Colortune...my carbs have been off my bike 3 times in the past week. I'm tempted to put a bullet in them. Seafoam and Berryman's have done little or nothing to help my bike. But hey, I've gotten to ride it around a bit and that's cool! I'll send you a PM.


-Rick

 

The idea of neck injuries due to wearing a helmet has been proven to be a myth for years -- I also work in healthcare and have never seen, heard of, or been shown any actual proof that a helmet caused an injury that would not have happened anyway.

And in counterpoint, I HAVE seen the result of not having a helmet on when meeting pavement or other solid object. "Minor injuries" ain't it folks. More like "hope you know a good mortician" or if you're lucky "hope you're friends with a plastic surgeon".

 

Altus,

I agree completely. Give me some abrasion protection at the VERY least, plus some padding and eye protection. At the age of 6 on my first dirt bike, a helmet saved my a$$ the first time, and at the age of 13 on a dirt bike, the second time. Second time would have been a 10-15mph collision of the top of my skull with the corner of our garage foundation. That wouldn't have been pretty.

I'll always wear a helmet and jacket at the bare minimum. Reading this article I'm starting to wonder whether the HJC I bought was the best choice.

-Rick

 

I definitely know the value of proper gear. I fell off in some gravel on a turn. Slid down the road and the gear saved my knee, left arm and chest. I just had a bunch of gravel in my pants to get out.

The helmet didn't hit the road, but it is good to know it was there in case.

I have the Icon Alliance...Snell rated...guess my brain will be mush if I hit it too hard.

 

Helmet has saved my life at least a dozen times on my dirt bikes.
Not the least of which was when I got hit by a truck. Hit the grill, went over the top, and hit the tailgate on the way down plus the pavement - with my head (lid).
If it wasn't for the helmet I'd be dead for sure. The truck was doin about 80 when he slammed on his brakes 20 feet in front of me.
All I suffered was a broken arm, the regular body bruising (ribs and such) aaaaaaaand some seriously messed up hips that will bother me for life.

Anyway - Helmet = Good. And no open faced harley bull either. Your skull will come off with the bowl.

*EDIT* that's 80 KMH

 

Yeouch Ease! Glad to hear you're still with us.

My grandfather was involved in three major motorcycle accidents in my time. It's a miracle he survived, as he never wore a helmet "cuz they block my got-damn vision!" I'll wear my helmet, thanks!

-Rick